Pilot Archive
Thread: Small Capital Ships
I think a more realistic approach would be to use something that is already in game - the imp/reb/free gunboats. Plenty of turrets to go around. Another key element would be the shields, enough to withstand multiple player attacks - its still to be seen how effective the new POB shields will be once the crafting issues are fixed, and then perhaps add the ability to install primary and secondary shields, as well as multiple reactors to cope with the extra energy needed by the weapons.
or maybe even re-enable the forward weapon hardpoints on some POB ships.. I know that disabled hardpoint under the nose of my Nova Courier mocks me every time i look at it 
! Its not as good as a real person, but hey, what are you gonna do? If there were NPC's then you could have fights just like in the movies with the only PC's being the captains of the capital ships with hordes of computer drones, it would be great.
ArdenStarmariner wrote:
Seems that Warlord Tier 5 Heavy Cruiser from Dathomir would maked a perfect player-control small capital ship. It has 5 turrets. Combine that with a pilot, operations, and captain and you have exactly a 8 player group.
But might be more realistic to ask for player-control gunboats.
Yeah, I agree they already have the outer models of gunships/small capital shipsfor all three factions. If they choose to follow through with it they (SOE)have set themselves up for the inclusion of larger POB ships, especially with the new POB ship components. Though if they do bring in the small capital ships/gunboats I hope they add a couple sectors of space. Not elaborate sectors like Kashyyyk but more sparse ones like Kessel or Deep Space, where large PVP battles can be held. I'm hoping that this is something we can look forward to in the future, though I've really liked some of the new space components added with RotW, I think theres more heading our way.
perhaps a scaled down victory class star destroyer, a scaled down mon cal cruiser would be ample requiring maybe 40 players to man properly.
Also should be lighter cruisers like Nebulon B's, Strike Cruiser, Carrack Cruisers, Assault frigates and corellian corvettes which take roughly 20.
Star Wars is not just fighters, capital ships are major part of space combat and we players should be able to have a degree of involvment in that.
. NPC crews likei mentioned before could be a good idea, i would just be worried about them being stupid, but then of course you can only get so many people together on a ship. If only they could make an AI worthy of the average person...
Wookus wrote:
Boarding parties are another of my favorite ideas. I've got a Smuggler also, and would LOVE to see this added. I want enemies that are going to try and board and search me, not always try to blast my into my constituent atoms. It would be great for PvP and faction wars too.
As far as the BIG ships, I'm down. I think it should be IMPOSSIBLE to run one without aFULL crew... no solo piloting SDs and such, but as a smuggler, I would love to see "Bulk Frieghters" that can be "Modified" for combat. I'm practically dying for them to add the rest of the iconic ships too, like the Imperial Shuttles, Rebel Transports, etc.
The one thing i would probably love to see most from Capital Ships is teh ability to land / launch. There's very little in the way that lets you form a "squadron", and this would go a loooonnnnnng way. Maybe add in frigates and cruisers, at the very least.
I agree that no one should be able to wander around a IDS along but I think and NPC crew should be an option on an IDS type ship.
Especialy an IDS because well even of you are the captian its still Vaders ship ( I would hate to work for that guy if you piss him off the force choke has to be a B#$%.
Mizraal wrote:
I've noticed that with the Y-8 and some of the new components, that they seem to be going in the direction of capital ships. While I don't really think players should be running around in Star Destroyers, I do think it would be great to have small capital ships in game. Going from the set up of the Y-8, these are my thoughts on capital ships.
There should be a bridge, the layout of the Y-8 is nice and something similar would be great. The pilot would naturally fly the ship, one crew member would fire the ordinance, and another would handle droid commands.I would also like to see third station that was able to effect repairs up to 66% from a single location rather then running around. Running around would still be needed to repair beyond 66%.
While the layout of the Y-8's bridge might be aethetically pleasing, it is impractical. Have you actually sat in the captain's chair and attempted to pilot the Y-8 (let along try to use the forward facing weapon from this position)? It isn't easy--they either need to pull the transparisteel canopy back further (giving the captain a wider field of vision), or they need to move the captain's chair forward.
I think2 pairs of 2turrets (4 total) would be about right, with a capacitor shared between a pair.
Also it would be great if to have the ability to carry 2 single person ships that could be scrambled. Players would have to dock with the capital ship once in space, and would have to launch from the capital ship. Should the ship be destroyed with the fighters on board, the fighters would be destroyed as well.
Component wise I think that the engines, reactor, and armor should all be specific to capital ships. For the weapons and capacitors I think starship grade should be mountable but with the availability of capital grade weapons that trade refire and energy consumption for power. This would allow players to decide if their capital ship would be geared towards fighters or other capital ships.
Anyways thats my thoughts on player capital ships right now.
- Heavy-Variant "Starter" Ships -- which we can craft.
- Clone-War Relics -- which we cannot craft. Why? Simple, they're relics--noone makes these ships anymore. One might argue that because they're relics, they should have stats inline with such a concept; however, this isn't an argument I want to have in this forum (go to the Pilot forum--they're having fun with this argument
). - The Y-8 -- which we cannot craft. Why? I have this theory that the devs decided to give players the Y-8 deed because the resource requirements for such a ship would be inordinate. The POB ships that a Shipwright can craft already require 150K units of resources. I consider this signficant quantity of resources. What do you think a Y-8 would require? 200K? 250K?
Now scale that for larger ships, such as those you're describing. A ship with 4 turrets, instead of the 3 that the Y-8 supports--resources required? 300K? 350K?
Now scale that again for a something bigger that starfighters can dock with--resources required? 500K? 1M?
The cost of such an undertaking would be extravagent. 500K worth of resources? If you charge 3 CPU, you're talking 1.5M for a ship--an unequipped ship, at that.
And what about components? Do we just keep scaling components (as if the elite components actually represent something that is supposed to be superior to Mark V components)? I think not. Practically, you need to start thinking about multiple components: armor plates, boosters, droid interfaces, engines, reactors, and shield generators. Unfortunately, the current UI doesn't readily support this. This would represent a major overhaul of this codebase--shudder--do you want this, really?
Jagged-F3l wrote:
Now scale that for larger ships, such as those you're describing. A ship with 4 turrets, instead of the 3 that the Y-8 supports--resources required? 300K? 350K?
Now scale that again for a something bigger that starfighters can dock with--resources required? 500K? 1M?
The cost of such an undertaking would be extravagent. 500K worth of resources? If you charge 3 CPU, you're talking 1.5M for a ship--an unequipped ship, at that.
And what about components? Do we just keep scaling components (as if the elite components actually represent something that is supposed to be superior to Mark V components)? I think not. Practically, you need to start thinking about multiple components: armor plates, boosters, droid interfaces, engines, reactors, and shield generators. Unfortunately, the current UI doesn't readily support this. This would represent a major overhaul of this codebase--shudder--do you want this, really?
I don't mind high prices; if it takes a guild to operated them, then it can take a guild to afford the resource price. If they want to add more ships that AREN'T craftable, then they've failed the shipwrights. Shipwright = a person who builds ships. This means that faction points and ground missions shouldn't be required. What I can say is that the current capital ships availible are puny POSs. At bare minimum they should add the gunboat and corvette shematics to shipwrights. Firepower is the one thing that current POB ships lack.
Message Edited by CommTampers on 05-20-2005 08:52 PM
I would say on this....
There already is little mini "cruiser" style ships programmed into the game. I would say make Gunboats a purchaseable schem. Make it cost a WHOLE lotta FP and a WHOLE lotta resource, and some serious cash toexchange the blueprintat the Chassis dealer. Keep the existing skin for the Imp gunboat, and for the Neutral one, change the Rebel one to look a little like the ship "Bright Hope" from the movies. Nice large crew (12 min with 1 repairman). Maybe even mod it a bit. Go 2 guns port and starboard (180 horizon and vertice). 1 above (360 degree horizon, 180 vertice), 1 below (same as above gun), 1 aft (180 horizon and vertice axis), 1 forward only firing, and some forward firing Ordinace (2 I think should do). 4 Caps, 2 reactors, and maybe a Double hull design (2 layers of front and rear armor). The rest standard compliment. Have Pilot, Gunners, repairman, a Tactical officer (droid commands). Should be able to fit it all in in the normal POB ship limit of about 5m mass (considering im using lots of the new Eliete POB only items and am only at 2.5m mass on my Nova). I think this would be lots of fun. Maybe have it take up a few lots in your garge to limit how many are out there. Or limit 1 per guild or somesuch... Sound good? Whatcha'll think? maybe even cut the above and below guns. but still use 3 caps (2 per gun).